Vaporization and dispersion modeling of contained refrigerated liquid spills

The modeling of evaporation and dispersion from chemical spills has been an active area. The available models span the range of very simple calculational methods, for quick response at the time of accidents, to more complex transient models that predict the results of hypothesized events. Conservative assumptions are often used in all of these models in place of more accurate and more complicated computational techniques.     

Estimation of catastrophic quantities of toxic chemicals by atmospheric dispersion modeling

In response to the Bhopal disaster and several repeated chemical releases (even though of less dangerous magnitude) in New Jersey, the state of New Jersey passed a bill on January 8, 1986, which is aimed at the prevention of such catastrophic releases in the state. This bill is officially referred to as the Toxic Catastrophe Prevention Act (TCPA). The TCPA identified eleven specific Extraordinarily Hazardous Substances (EHS). Table 1 lists these eleven EHS identified in the Act and their reportable quantities. The TCPA aims at the prevention of the release of these EHS into the environment. The Legislature did not provide the basis and background of the development of the reportable quantities of these eleven EHS. The TCPA mandates that the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) shall expand the list of these EHS and shall “… correlate the substances with the quantities required to produce the potentially catastrophic circumstances.”     

Low-cost airlines and online price dispersion

This paper presents a new form of online pricing tactic where airlines post, at the same time and for the same flight, fares in different currencies that violate the Law of One Price. Unexpectedly for an online market, price dispersion may be accompanied by a hidden discount that tends to persist in the period preceding a flight's departure. The econometric analysis reveals that airlines post dispersive fares in less competitive routes with more heterogeneous demand. Furthermore, temporal persistence of intra-firm fare dispersion suggests that it is an equilibrium phenomenon engendered by the airlines' need to manage stochastic demand conditions for a specific flight.     

Subnational institutional contingencies and executive pay dispersion

This paper investigates the impact of subnational institutional contingencies on executive pay dispersion structure and the relationship between pay dispersion and firm performance. Using executive compensation data on Chinese listed firms between 2000 and 2011, we find that executive pay dispersion is significantly lower in state-owned enterprises (SOEs), while is significantly higher in cross-listed firms and to a smaller degree in firms located in developed regions. There is also evidence that executive pay dispersion is smaller during the voluntary compensation disclosure period. After controlling for endogeneity of pay determination, we find that executive pay dispersion is positively associated with firm performance. In addition, the positive link between executive pay dispersion and firm performance is stronger in non-SOEs than in SOEs, and stronger in firms located in more developed regions than those not. Our findings are also robust to alternative measures of pay dispersion and firm performance.     

Cost benefit and public policy issues

Abstract
The paper reviews the work done and conclusions reached on resource allocation to R&D in the public sector in the last twenty years, and examines what changes have been made in the field of R&D assessment. The paper is based mainly on the author's experience with the UK government's Programmes Analysis Unit (PAU) which was set up in the early 1960s.
The Unit's main remit was to examine and disseminate techniques by the use of which the benefit to the nation from possible R&D strategies, programmes and projects might be calculated. It was also called in to help review policy and carry out long-range forecasting. In the course of its existence — it was wound up in 1977 — it analysed many new techniques of analysis which have now passed into common use and took part in studies to support decisions at all levels from the macro-economic sector down to the individual project.
The author lists the benefits derivable from such analyses — helping to identify objectives, assemble total programmes, evaluate efficiency of technological transfer, carry out technology assessment and so on. But he warns of their limitations.
As for the present day, the author is unhappy about the importance given by the UK Government to the market as a test of value in decision-making about R&D, in so far as it leads to neglect of long-term issues and relies on uncertain causal relationships among critical inputs. Cost-benefit is adequate for dealing with short-term, small-scale projects. For larger projects with controversial long-term implications he advocates broader-based techniques such as multi-attribute analysis, which bring the interests of many parties into the judgment and take into account considerations such as the environment, finite resources and social     

Operation flood: impacts and issues

This article investigates whether Operation Flood - the Indian dairy programme supported by the WFP, the EEC and other international donor agencies - has achieved its objectives of enhancing dairy production in India while also offering poor and landless farmers a chance to participate in dairying. Detailed empirical work on the project did not confirm the grand claims made for Operation Flood as a success story of global significance. In particular, conclusions are highlighted with regard to Operation Flood's impact on India's dependency on foreign (EEC) deliveries of skim milk powder; India's domestic dairy production; the incomes of participating farmers; existing informal dairy production and marketing; the nutritional levels in rural areas; and the position of rural women. Various options for the future are outlined.     

Financing and other issues in telecommunications development

Implementation of telecommunications infrastructure throughout developing countries is a prerequisite to national development. The fundamental question, argues Dr Parker, is how can developing countries pay for the capital investment in the necessary telecommunications equipment. The need is to encourage an institutional structure that can stimulate innovative, lower-cost appropriate rural telecommunications technologies without imposing excessive risks on the national telecommunications monopoly. With sucessful models to follow, it will be easier to achieve consensus between developing country borrowers, international lenders and telecommunications manufacturers.     

关于中俄油气合作几个战略性问题的思考

中国海外油气发展战略的重点之一是中俄合作,中俄油气合作具有更大的政治意义、社会意义和现实性,企业层面要充分认识到俄罗斯油气资源战略地位的重要性.俄罗斯国家战略的变化,俄罗斯的民族性格和谈判文化,以及其他国家对中俄合作的干扰,带来了中俄油气合作的艰巨性.虽然之前合作过程中有波折,中国企业和人员仍然应该积极、理性地开展俄罗斯油气业务,开拓思路,以多种模式推进中俄油气合作.     

Grain reserves — unresolved issues

The authors focus on three relatively neglected issues in the debate over grain reserves: the role of private stockpiling and its relation to publicly held (or subsidized) reserves; the nature of export demand for US wheat and its relation to reserves proposals; and the distribution of (wheat) crop yields as it may affect the operation of a reserves plan. It is argued that these crucial issues bear directly on the feasibility of any proposed scheme, and will determine important attributes of any feasible scheme.     

业界着手解决IP复用问题

寻求降低成本和缩短上市周期是一个很久以来人们一直在探索的问题,这个问题催生出诸如亨利福特的组装生产线,以及近来的6sigma方法学等创新.显然,SOC设计人员和制造业者需要面临同样的问题.     

Trigger issues in emerging relationships

Classic IMP research always emphasizes the important role of actor bonds. Relationships involve the development of social bonds over time between two or more actors, and in most relationships there is great variation in terms of the time it takes for these actors to develop perceptions about each other. Interestingly, however, there is much less research about how business relationships come into being. ‘Business relationship emerging flow’ describes a potential process by which business relationships come into being, from a starting situation through the trigger issues which motivate the matching process, to the establishment of new relationships. This paper places its focus on the trigger issues which could boost emerging relationships. The birth of an important relationship with a Hungarian company is discussed using retrospective interviews with parties, suppliers and customers. For deeper understanding of these trigger issues and to make them more tangible and applicable, a theoretical, logical framework is developed using two dimensions: space and time. Trigger issues are analyzed along these two dimensions. The paper closes by considering theoretical and managerial applications and further research issues.     

Standards issues in data communications

The lack of development in standards and compatibility in the field of data communication and processing requires urgent attention. The author discusses the compatibility issues that arise from the introduction of packet-switching networks, which typify the growing interdependence of computer and communication technologies. Focusing on Canada as a case example, he examines issues relating to the compatibility between the communication services offered by different networks and communication functions used for distributed data processing, and also between the procedures employed to provide these services and functions.     

Pay dispersion and workforce performance: moderating effects of incentives and interdependence

The compensation literature is replete with arguments, but lacking in empirical tests, regarding the effects of pay dispersion on organizational outcomes. Pay dispersion may increase effort and provide incentives for high workforce performance levels, but may also inhibit cooperation and goal orientation among employees. Drawing on several theoretical perspectives (individual motivation, institutional theory, organizational justice, and neoclassical economics), this study predicts that pay dispersion will be associated with higher levels of workforce performance when accompanied by formal individual incentive systems and independent work, while pay compression is desirable in the absence of individual incentive systems and when work is interdependent. Survey research studies in two industrial sectors (the motor carrier and concrete pipe industries) were conducted to address these issues. Interactive regression results were generally supportive of the predictions across several measures of workforce performance (accident rates, safety violations, and productivity). Implications of these studies for strategy implementation in terms of compensation theory and practice are addressed. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Labor and training issues in advanced technology industrial development

The United States, together with other advanced industrial societies is having to address the skill and training requirements which stem from occupational change as a result of technological innovation. This article examines the major labor questions for policy-makers in the USA now and in the near future.     

Knowledge work in distributed environments: issues and illusions

Although Finland is one of the most advanced and competitive economies in the world, with a sophisticated technological infrastructure, only four per cent of Finnish wage earners regard themselves as doing telework, and a further four per cent had tried telework. Empirical evidence of telework is presented in this paper.     

Emerging issues in white space regulation

The secondary use of vacant television channels (TV white spaces) and the reallocation of the digital dividend to provide wireless broadband services are in the final stages of implementation in some countries. Originally seen as a once in a generation opportunity to better allocate UHF spectrum, further digital dividends are now underway as regulators and industry strive to meet exponential increases in demand for mobile data services. Concurrent developments suggest that TV white spaces may be rapidly exploited by global networks with billions of supported devices. The potential for sub-optimal outcomes is identified if the prospect of further digital dividends is not taken into account as technical and regulatory arrangements are put in place to allow productive use of TV white spaces. The importance of considering the potential interaction between further digital dividends and the use of TV white spaces is discussed and technical and regulatory approaches to support optimal outcomes are identified.     

Investment flexibility and competition modeling for broadband business

In the new era of the telecommunications business field, a large number of potential investors are capable of entering into the market of the broadband services provision. This paper provides a model for analyzing the new perspectives for new investors in this field. It integrates compound Real Options and Game Theory techniques and adopts price competition analysis, for the broadband services provision, in order to find the optimal business strategy. Finally, it applies the analysis to a real life business case by formulating and solving it.